FireBackup
FireServe developed FireBackup (FireServe Online Backup) in 2002 as
an in-house block-change network-based file backup solution for the various
servers and computers powering FireServe's wireless ISP network. We
developed it out of frustration that none of the existing online backup
services (like Connected Online Backup) supported Linux, and our network is
extensively Linux-based. All of the existing network backup
solutions from companies like Veritas continued to use the traditional,
yet obsolete and outmoded concept of
full and incremental backups, which we felt was an inefficient use of
network storage and resources. Thus, FireBackup was born out of necessity. Shortly
after, we began offering FireBackup to business customers to
provide secure off-site point-in-time network backup services, as an
alternative to other online backup providers like Connected Online
Backup. We are
now preparing to release FireBackup as an open-source product in March or
April 2008. Check back then to download and try a copy on your own
network!

FireBackup is currently the only block-change network storage and backup
solution with point-in-time recovery that supports Windows, Linux, and other
UNIX clients. And best of all, FireBackup will soon be free to deploy
on your own network!

Features

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You can choose
to download the free open-source community version released under the GNU General Public License (GPL),
or purchase a commercial license with a technical support contract.

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Client backup application is available
for Windows, Linux and other UNIX variants. The UNIX version of the client is written in portable POSIX-compliant
C, while the Windows version can be built with Microsoft Visual C 6.0 or later (with Win2K platform SDK or later).

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Client/server connections use
SSL for encryption and authentication, through the OpenSSL libraries.

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FireBackup is a block-change backup
system, meaning only the changed or new portions of your files need to be uploaded to the server during each backup
session.

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Unlike the traditional full/incremental
backup methodology, every FireBackup session is a full backup, while only transferring the changed blocks.

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Identical blocks between backup sessions
or profiles don't need to be re-uploaded to the server. If you have many common files across a number of computers
that will be backed up to the same FireBackup server, they'll only be uploaded to the server once. Likewise, only
one copy of those blocks will be consuming space on the server.

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FireBackup's unique approach to
block-change backups allows point-in-time recovery of your files from any backup session in the past! As a block
change system, space on the server is only consumed by blocks that actually changed between each backup session.

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Backup sessions can be browsed via
HTTP with any web browser, allowing files to be retrieved and past backup sessions to be managed.

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If you don't want to go through the
trouble of setting up your own local FireBackup storage server, or want to store your backups in a secure off-site
location, FireServe also provides FireBackup storage services on our redundant RAID5-equipped servers!

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You can try out FireBackup with
a free demo storage account on one of our FireBackup storage servers. Demo accounts will allow you to upload
up to 100MB of data for 7 days so you can see how FireBackup works before downloading and deploying a local
FireBackup server on your network.

How It Works
FireBackup works by logically dividing your files into small blocks, each of
which can be uniquely identified by it's MD5 hash value (a unique value that can
identify the contents of a block of data). The FireBackup client analyzes the files that
are being backed up to identify which blocks may have changed since the
last backup, and when a block appears to have changed, the client asks the
FireBackup server if it already has a copy of the new block. If it
does not yet exist on the FireBackup server, the block is uploaded over a
secure encrypted SSL connection. In
this way, only data that has actually changed is ever uploaded to the
FireBackup server, dramatically cutting down network traffic and storage space
requirements of traditional backup systems that store complete copies of any
changed file. The FireBackup server "tags" each block referenced by a
particular backup session, enabling point-in-time recovery of any file you've
backed up at any point in the past, without requiring massive amounts of
storage space on the server.

This does away with the concept of
full backups (where every file is copied and backed up in full) and
incremental backups (where only changed files are backed up, requiring
a previous full backup to restore the full set of files) in the traditional
sense. Full and incremental backups evolved out of obsolete tape backup
systems and we feel have no place in modern network storage based backup
solutions, as they are wasteful and unnecessary! Every FireBackup
session is a full backup, yet only has to
transfer changed blocks, so it combines the best aspects of both types of
traditional backups!

How To Download FireBackup
The FireBackup server and client applications will soon be released as
open-source. We anticipate making the first open source release in
March or April 2008. Please check back then to download a copy!

Getting Help and Tech Support
The FireBackup Message Forum is now online. New
releases will be announced there, and we hope a community of FireBackup
users will grow around the forums to help newcomers to FireBackup, and to
further FireBackup development.

Secure Off-Site Network Backup Services
FireServe will also be continuing to provide off-site network storage and
backup services using FireBackup for individuals or businesses that want to
take advantage of FireBackup to backup their files to a secure off-site
FireBackup server.